Page 69 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1370 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders
of giants. • Isaac Newton (1642–1727)

to escape an outbreak of plague. Nearly all his ideas religious views were unorthodox—he rejected the divin-
originated during these eighteen months in 1665–1666. ity of Jesus Christ—but, because these views were not
Newton fit the stereotype of the hermit scholar who lived fully known, he did not experience the persecution that
in isolation for no purpose other than work.When Cam- his great predecessor Galileo (1564–1642) had suffered.
bridge appointed him a professor of mathematics, he Although the reclusive Newton never traveled outside
proved to be a poor teacher. He won respect (and elec- his native England, his work became accepted in much
tion to the prestigious scientific Royal Society) when he of Europe, but not all of it and not immediately or unan-
built an impressive reflecting telescope. imously. For instance, Jesuit scholars remained loyal to
In an age before specialization, Newton contributed to the older Cartesian system, devised by René Descartes
diverse fields of the physical sciences and mathematics. (1596–1650). His vortex theory credited impulsion in
Often “publication” in private correspondence preceded particles themselves (and not attraction) with moving
print publication by many years. As a young man, New- things around in the universe. Newton eventually won
ton began his study of color and light, which reached a acceptance because his theories produced better practical
climax with the publication of the Opticks in 1704. results. For instance, his theory correctly predicted the
While still very young he developed the mathematical return of Halley’s comet. During the middle decades of
theory that he called the method of fluxions (later known the eighteenth century the French philosophes Voltaire
as calculus). Concurrently, the German scholar G. W. (1694–1778) and Gabrielle Emilie le Tonnelier de Bre-
Leibniz (1646–1716) developed differential and integral teuil, marquise du Châtelet (1706–1749) popularized
calculus. A bitter controversy followed: did Newton or Newton’s ideas outside England among educated read-
Leibniz deserve the credit? They had worked independ- ers. Du Châtelet translated Newton’s Principia into
ently, so the answer is both of them. Newton is best French and wrote a commentary describing new proofs
known for his theory of universal gravitation. According of Newton’s theories. Aided by Newton’s prestige, the
to a familiar but probably untrue story, it was when he natural sciences became the model for the social sciences
saw an apple fall from a tree in the family orchard that in the Enlightenment, with the latter borrowing the self-
he was inspired to recognize that the same forces, confidence that the former had earned. Still later, Euro-
expressed in the same laws, controlled both earthly and centric interpreters of world history adopted Newton and
celestial bodies.Written in Latin and published in 1687, the concept of a scientific revolution as evidence for the
Newton’s major work on mechanics was the Principia superiority of the West.
(or Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy). Eventually, scientists throughout the world acknowl-
Although he engaged in unattractive quarrels with sci- edged Newton as their teacher and inspiration. For
entists who dared dispute the correctness or the origi- instance, by 1730 Jesuit missionaries brought some of
nality of his ideas, he acquired more admirers than Newton’s astronomical ideas to China, and by the mid-
critics, both inside and outside the English scientific dle of the nineteenth century Newton’s calculus and part
community. He briefly served in the House of Com- of his Principia were available in Chinese.
mons, and in 1696 he moved from Cambridge to Lon- In the 1930s a reaction against the old emphasis on
don when patrons put him in the Royal Mint at a salary individual genius as the explanation for scientific pr-
that made him rich. In 1703 Newton was elected presi- ogress challenged Newton’s importance. Marxists and
dent of the Royal Society, and in 1705 he was knighted. others argued that science was a collaborative enterprise,
One of his very few close friendships appears to have influenced by contemporary ideology, and that the accept-
been that with the young Swiss mathematician Nicolas ance of new scientific ideas by nonscientists required an
Fatio de Duillier (1664–1753), in the early 1690s. Never educated public. More recently, scholars pointed out
married and suffering recurrent bouts of depression, that Newton had “unscientific” interests, including al-
Newton in his later years lived quietly with a niece. His chemy—turning base metals into gold—and biblical